System and method for content structure adaptation

Abstract

A system for content structure adaptation is provided that includes a grammar specification that defines a set system rules, a descriptor that defines content names and types, where the descriptor creates an instance based upon the grammar specification, an interpreter that adds system requirements to the instance, and a code generator that generates application code in response to the system requirements defined in the instance. A method for content structure adaptation includes deriving a data element description from common data, applying system rules to the data element description to create an instance that includes data element definitions and system data requirements, and mapping the data element definitions to corresponding source code fragments in response to the system data requirements. The content structure adaptation system and method changes the data structure of a documentation system by editing a configuration file, as opposed to manually reconfiguring or rewriting source code.

Description

PRIORITY [0001] This application is a continuation-in-part of pending U.S. Patent Application entitled “Network System For Information Creation, Management and Publication of Documentation” filed Oct. 31, 2003 having Ser. No. 10 / 697,873, the disclosure is hereby incorporated by reference.FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] The present invention relates generally to a system for information creation, management and publication of documentation. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system and method for content structure adaptation in an information management system. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] Over the past few years, many companies have expended considerable resources on the creation, management and publication of documentation associated with products or services. This is at least partially due to the volume of technical documentation that is used in product manufacturing, as well as the considerable volume of information that is necessary to operate and service ...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

While a great deal of the creation, management and publication of documentation (hereinafter “the documentation lifecycle”) takes place in electronic form, the efficiencies companies thought would be achieved by storing the information electronically has not been realized.

However, the adoption and use of electronic authoring, storage and publication technology as has been done in prior systems, has, in and of itself, not provided the ability to effectively manage and control this information.

Prior documentation systems have and do not provide the ability to create, manage and publish documentation from a single source of information.

Additionally, prior documentation systems do not enable one to effectively to re-use information.

It is also not likely that the software employed will be integrated.

There are several drawbacks to the manual coordination approach, even when it is used on a relatively small scale.

These drawbacks also make the manual coordination approach extremely difficult to manage even on a small scale.

One drawback of the manual coordination approach is that it is susceptible to document consistency problems.

Maintaining consistency of information in any different versions can be problematic, and depending on the frequency and nature of changes to the information, maintaining consistency is not always feasible.

Document consistency problems are possible when information comes from multiple sources as opposed to coming from a single source.

Multiple sources permit consistency problems to arise at any point in the documentation cycle especially when managing or publishing documentation.

Consistency problems may also lead to document version control issues.

This second approach also suffers from several drawbacks.

One such drawback to the all-in-one approach is that such systems are proprietary, closed systems.

A problem encountered with this is that information stored in such a system is not stored in a format that is based on industry standards.

This means that it may be quite difficult to import or merge work done in a third party application into a proprietary all-in-one system.

Another drawback is that while an all-in-one approach may provide integration of the components in the all-in-one system, the components may not necessarily be the most preferred components to accomplish any one task, much less accomplish one of the stages of the documentation cycle.

Thus, the drawback to an all-in-one system that performs some or all of the functions of the documentation lifecycle, is that the all-in-one system may not perform any one task especially well.

Another drawback of prior approaches using an all-in-one documentation system is that a cost associated with adoptin

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